Voter ID myths: The scheme to make fraud easier

Gov. Maggie Hassan said through a spokesman last week that she wants to repeal the entire voter ID law passed in the last legislative session. She echoed her claims from last year that there is no voter fraud in New Hampshire, but the photo ID requirement hinders the right to vote. She is using one myth to puncture another.

The claim that there is no voter fraud in the state — made repeatedly by the New Hampshire Democratic Party — is the first of two intentionally misleading statements that Democrats think will make them able to win elections in the state indefinitely. It is true that there have been a few documented cases of voter fraud over the years. Why not more? Because our laws have made it virtually impossible to uncover fraud.

Remember the stunt James O’Keefe pulled in the 2012 presidential primary? His Project Veritas team members were able to obtain ballots in the name of deceased voters — without even asking for the ballots. They simply showed up at polling places and asked if specific people were on the voter lists. Poll workers assumed that the activists were the people they named (all of whom were dead), and handed them ballots.

This is but one example of the kind of fraud our system had no way to detect before the voter ID law. Anyone could pose as anyone else, vote, and walk away without ever having his or her identity verified. This is what Hassan and her party want to restore.

We also know that out-of-staters vote regularly in New Hampshire elections. At the polls, they sign an affidavit stating that they are “domiciled” in New Hampshire. They vote, then leave. No one checks to see whether they are who they say they are or whether they live where they say they do. This has been documented for years.

The second misleading statement Democrats use to oppose voter ID is that it disenfranchises people. But it does not. Despite hysterical predictions that thousands of people would be turned away at the polls, there was not a single complaint about disenfranchisement in last fall’s elections, the first under the photo ID requirement.

One has to wonder why Democrats insist that the exact opposite of reality is true and why they use these baseless claims to oppose voter ID laws. The public should be deeply suspicious of politicians who try so hard to establish a voting system that does not allow the public to verify the identity of those who vote.

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